Riccardo Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini" is one of those operas that comes and goes. It arrived at the Metropolitan Opera in 1916, two years after its world premiere in Turin, Italy, but departed from the repertory in 1918. The current production of "Francesca da Rimini" was new in 1984, but has not been seen again here since 1986. This year it's back.

Zandonai's operas have always been just beyond the fringe of the standard repertory. A student of Pietro Mascagni, Zandonai wrote music that has familiar elements of the Italian operas during and after World War I, but also an unmistakable sound of its own. It looks back to the loud, brash scores of his verismo contemporaries Giordano and Alfano, but also to Richard Strauss, Korngold and Debussy.

This telling of the tale of Francesca da Rimini's love for her brother-in-law Paolo was drawn from passages in Dante's "Inferno," with additional ideas from Boccaccio. Playwright Gabriele d'Annunzio brought the story to stage in a steamy and scandalous play for his lover, the great actress Eleanora Duse. The libretto, adapted from d'Annunzio by Tito Ricordi, is replete with white-hot passion, war, betrayal, suspicion, torture and revenge.

The Met's current revival, which opened earlier this month, stars soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek. As in her Sieglinde, the role of her Met debut in 2011, Westbroek is soulful and passionate as Francesca. She brings out her character's many conflicts: Francesca laments leaving her family for the arranged marriage, but softens when the handsome Paolo comes to fetch her. She discovers too late that she's to be married to his brother Giovanni Malatesta (also called Gianciotto), a deformed, vengeful man. Her love for Paolo eventually boils over as she and he read together the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere.

Marcello Giordani's Paolo shows the proper restraint until he can no longer hold back. The role has no showstopper arias, but it grows in intensity as his duets with Francesca progress the story. Mark Delavan is fittingly harsh, cruel and loud as Gianciotto; Robert Brubaker is an oily Malatestino, a third brother who wants his way with Francesca, but settles for revealing Paolo's nightly trysts instead.

Young female companions are conspicuous parts of Francesca's world: They provide the girlish excitement in anticipation of the arrival of her suitor in the opera's beginning; they entertain and comfort a troubled Francesca as she is drawn deeper into her affair with Paolo. Disella Làrusdóttir and Caitlin Lynch sing Garsenda and Biancofiore respectively, both in their Met debuts; Patricia Risley sings Altichiara and Renee Tatum essays Adonella; Francesca's sister Samaritana is taken by Dina Kuznetsova and Smaragdi, Francesca's slave, is sung by Ginger Costa-Jackson.

Other members of the cast include John Moore as Simonetto, the Jester who draws our attention to the forbidden lovers of the past. Philip Horst sings Ostasio, Francesca's brother; Keith Jameson sings Ser Toldo Berardengo, the lawyer who warns Ostasio that if Francesca lays eyes on Gianciotto before the contract is signed there will be no marriage.

Conductor Marco Armiliato gives Zandonai's score a sure reading, accentuating the quietly intense magic of love at first sight, the booming crescendo of warfare, the passion of love, the tension of an adulterous triangle and the weight of eternal doom.

Piero Faggioni's production perfectly captures all of these shifting moods, aided by dark, massive sets designed by Ezio Frigerio. The first act shimmers with Francesca's first sight of Paolo; Franca Squarciapino's costumes for the young women catch the light and flow as they scamper back and forth. Kudos to Stage Director David Kneuss for recapturing the magic of the 1984 original.

Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini" is performed again on the Met stage on the evenings of March 19 and 22. Tickets are available at www.metopera.org/ or call 212-362-6000. On Saturday, March 23, the Quick Center in Fairfield will telecast in HD two encore performances of the March 16 matinee at the Met, the first at noon, the next at 6 p.m. Tickets for these venues are available at their websites or via links through the Met's website.

Jerry Sehulster is a freelance writer who lives in Stamford. He can be reached at jsehulster@att.net.